On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” CNN Political Commentator and Temple University Professor Marc Lamont Hill weighed in on Vice President Mike Pence’s walkout at an NFL game by stating that used the flag and National Anthem as a “stunt prop,” and wanted to draw attention to black people.
Hill said that Pence’s walkout was “staged.” He added that Pence has the right to protest, but expressed disappointment with using taxpayer dollars on the walkout. Hill later added that he didn’t mind the walkout being staged, and said protests are designed to be “stunts.”
Hill continued, “The players wanted to draw attention to police violence against black people. And unfortunately, Mike Pence wanted to draw attention to these black people, as opposed to the actual issue, which is what? Police violence. He could have protested Charlottesville.”
He concluded, “[Y]ou don’t get to decide the meaning of other people’s protests, number one. And number two, you don’t get to decide other people’s patriotism. And it’s — I find it the height of arrogance for — particularly, for the president, or any white person, to tell a group of black people who are being oppressed, ‘Oh, your protest doesn’t mean what you think it means anymore.’ Or to tell them that you’re not patriotic because you are, somehow, challenging white supremacy, challenging state violence, etc. … And it’s not disrespectful to a flag to kneel, any more than it’s disrespectful to a bus to have a bus boycott, or disrespectful to a bridge to sit on the Pettus Bridge to — for the Voting Rights Act. These are spectacles designed to draw attention to something. That’s what this is about, not about the flag. The height of disrespect of the flag and the anthem to me is Mike Pence using it as a stunt prop, as opposed to what it’s really for, which is to affirm the highest ideals of the country, which is what these players are trying do by taking a knee and calling for America to be as good as its democratic promise.”
(h/t Daily Caller)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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